The ballad of the lonely angel
by Mystik
Summary: I walk this lonely road...always saying goodbye to everyone I ever loved.


**Pairing:** Ten/Rose, mentions of Jack/Ianto

**Genre:** Slash, Angst

**Note: **Unbeta'ed. Spoilers for season 4 finale.

* * *

**The ballad of the lonely angel**

"Give it to me!"

The other kids laughed as the scrawny kid ran after them, trying to get his toy back. They pushed the kid and he fell on the ground, scraping his knees. The older kids laughed and broke their toy, tossing at him.

"Here you go, looser."

The little kid sank in the grass, picking up his toy, watching as the other kids went away, still laughing at him. He dried his tears, analyzing the toy, trying to find a way to fix it.

"You just need to switch the electrical circuit."

The kid looked up, meeting those brown, old eyes. He blinked, tilting his head.

"Who are you?"

The man just smiled, nodding.

"Doesn't matter, I'm just passing through. So...want some help with this?"

The kid looked back at his toy and then looked at the man again. He nodded, beginning to stand up from ground. He put the toy away on his pocket.

"Nah, I can make a better one, maybe a sonic one this time."

The man smirked, but there was something sad in his eyes. The boy tilted his head again.

"You're a Time Lord right?"

The man blinked.

"How did you know?"

The boy shrugged.

"You have a lot of years on your eyes. I met my fair share of adults to recognize. I hope I never get that look when I get old."

"Did you have your initiation yet?" the man asked, putting his hands in the pockets of his trousers.

"Next week." the boy smiled. "My friend already had it. But he came back...different."

"Really? What's his name?"

"He's the Master now. He says he controls everything, with the sound of the drums."

The man bit his lower lip, nodding in understanding.

"Do you know what you're gonna be?"

The boy smiled, for real this time, his brown eyes shining in the bright light of the day.

"Of course. I'm gonna be the Doctor, the one that saves everybody, especially those who can't save themselves."

The man smiled, his smile the same as the boy. His figure started to fade.

"I'm sure you will."

The boy blinked as the man disappeared in front of him. A hologram. How...brilliant. The young Doctor picked up his broken screw driver and started walking back home. He needed to fix that as soon as he arrived.

--

"Never thought I would see you again so soon."

He turned around, facing both Jack and Martha. They were in front of Cardiff's train station. The Doctor blinked, looking at them.

"You two arrived early."

"Why, were you waiting for us?"

"As a matter of fact, yeah." answered the Time Lord, looking at them.

Both humans stared at him, quite in shock. The Doctor just shrugged his shoulders, the absence of the long, brown coat, making him look smaller, somehow.

"So...if you were waiting for us...care to join?" began Jack, eyeing him carefully. "Martha is just gonna say hello to Ianto and Gwen, before returning London."

"Sure."

Martha watched the Doctor with some interest, curiously. She knew something was wrong right away, because of the look in his eyes.

"Where's Rose? And Donna?"

The question made the Doctor look away, shrugging again. Jack turned his eyes to Martha, instantly recognizing the signs.

"Rose came back to her world. She couldn't stay here. But the Doctor, well the other me if you like, stayed with her."

The captain immediately approached, hugging him by his shoulders, starting to walk with the Time Lord away from the station. Martha followed them, biting her lower lip. Yeah, she knew it something was wrong.

"Well, you can have some time down in my Torchwood later as you finish with the stories for us Doctor." Jack said as he walked away, closing the subject for now.

--

The Doctor stayed behind, watching as Martha yelled at both Jack companions, running to them, hugging first the girl, Gwen, then Ianto. Then he saw as Gwen ran to Jack, hugging him fiercely, slapping his head after that, saying he took too long to come back home. The captain just laughed, kissing her forehead, tenderly.

The Doctor just blinked in surprise when he saw as the young man, Ianto, approached Jack cautiously. And got even more surprised when Jack hugged him fiercely, stepping back only to kiss him, long and hard. The young Welsh kissed back, hugging him tighter.

"You shouldn't seen surprised, Jack has quite the...reputation." said Martha, standing beside him.

"That's different." said the Time Lord without missing a beat. "With Ianto is different."

"Yeah, that's true." agreed the woman. "You two are not so different after all."

The Doctor looked at her.

"How come?"

"You both can live forever, but you still are able to love. That's why the Master died the way he did. He wasn't."

The Doctor looked down, smiling weakly.

"Ianto, Gwen...this is the Doctor."

The Time Lord looked up, realizing that both humans were now in front of him. He extended his hands, politely.

"Uhn...hi."

Gwen was the first to say something.

"If I ask a question, you promise to answer honestly?"

The Doctor blinked.

"Uhn...sure."

"How did you meet Jack? Was he always...immortal?"

Jack coughed at that, trying his best to be subtle, but failing miserably. The Doctor laughed, the sound echoing through his body like needles.

"Actually...we met a long time ago...during World War Two. The rest...you have to ask him, I'm sure he can tell you way better."

The disappointed look on their faces made his heart clench even more.

--

"So...you wanna tell me what happened to Donna, now that we are alone?"

The Doctor sighed, feeling the heat of Martha next to him.

"I wiped out her memory."

"What? Why?"

"She gained all that knowledge from me, but it was killing her. I didn't have other choice."

Martha swallowed the lump around her throat, looking at the sky.

"I was right, you and Jack are so much alike."

The Time Lord glanced sideways.

"Again, how come?"

"Well...it must hurt to see everyone you love leaving you...eventually."

The Doctor stood up. Martha did as well.

"Before you say that you're fine, just let me remind you this: even though you are alone in that TARDIS of yours...you still have us. You still have...me." the woman shrugged. "Even if I'm not Rose."

"I never thought that."

"But you wished." concluded Martha, bitter. She smiled weakly. "That's beside the point. What I'm trying to say here is...that when you don't have anywhere else to go...you can come back here."

The Time Lord smiled, hugging her. He stepped away and looked at the sky.

"Say goodbye to Jack for me."

"I doubt he and Ianto are gonna leave his room that soon." replied Martha, giggling.

The Doctor giggled as well.

--

He watched with jealousy as Jack kissed the young man, right there, underneath the night sky, hugging him tenderly. He watched as the immortal traded his fingers through those brown locks, the gesture speaking about love...even if Jack didn't say out loud. He watched as Ianto kissed him back, surrendering himself to the captain.

The Doctor closed his eyes and imagined himself in the place of Jack's, the hair through his fingers blond and light like rays of sun. Kissing pouty lips that were pink like the flower that gave name to their owner.

Rose.

The Time Lord picked up his screw driver from his pocket, remembering when he saw his future self once, a long time ago, when he was a kid. He couldn't turn back to the past of the Time Lords, but maybe the future was holding some surprises for him.

_"I'm gonna be the Doctor, the one that saves everybody, especially those who can't save themselves."_

The Doctor turned on the TARDIS as one question was running through his mind: if he saved everybody, who was going to save him?

Apparently, that was the destiny of a Time Lord. To be left unsaved.

THE END


End file.
